Quote (JohnnyMcCoy @ 6 Sep 2021 01:32)
i see the effects in germany, the costs are blowing up and despite productive people paying a lot you gotta pay extra for many things
when i broke a tooth at sports i had to pay half out of my pocket despite me paying like triple the full price since the last treatment i required
worst deal ever
i like the system in the netherlands where everything is private but with basic requirements set by the state to ensure everyone can afford it, but you can still choose the best deal for myself
right now i am just losing a lot of money for zero returns
since you mention a 500 pound person as an example
look at the current discussion with vaccine karens demanding that people without vaccination should not be treated in hospital
when they can do that, i can demand that obese trash may perish as well
not that i really want that, but this works both ways
As a fellow German, I have to push back on this a little bit. Overall, the way our healthcare system is set up is infinitely better than the American one. What has led to the deterioration of our system in recent years is demographic change and bad policies, not a flaw of the universal healthcare itself.
First, we are a rapidly aging society, so the cost-revenue ratio of our insurance companies was destined to worsen. Second, we have a split between public and private insurance which allows some of the most high-income groups, civil servants in particular, to not pay into the system that's paying for the plebs' treatment. Third, we have far too many healthcare insurers and the overhead cost is killing us. Fourth, we afford the luxury of overtreating very old and sick patients, a luxury which we will have to cut down on sooner or later. Fifth, we suffer from the burden of millions of recipients who never contributed to the system. On the one hand, we have older East Germans who spent their prime earning years in the failed, socialist GDR, never contributed to the social safety net of the Federal Republic but are now entitled to benefits. On the other hand all the millions of migrants who came in recent years.
A lot of these factors are very specific to Germany, so they are not a general argument against our type of healthcare system. I agree, however, that the Netherlands and, to a lesser degree, Austria have even better systems. That's where our American friends should look at to find ideas for a kickass healthcare system, rather than Germany, the UK or France.